The Pits and Pieces

  Have you increasingly felt you’ve lost your ability to focus? That the distractions keep coming at you? You’re not alone. And it’s not you. It is by design. Yes, the tech giants WANT to keep you online on that ‘infinite scroll’. STOLEN FOCUS by JOHANN HARI is carefully researched as he delves into how our society is losing its ability to think deeply. And at a time when we need it most.   With the speed of everything coming at us, what we do is ‘scan and skim’, leaning towards the simpler stories, the quick bites, the sparkly bits. We absorb less and less. But what is chilling is: this is the INTENTION of the algorithm design. To keep us scrolling online, liking and arguing, while they collect data on us, to…of course, sell more to us, because it’s all about ‘economic growth’.   HARI’s research into this book led him to many experts and social scientists in the field and the revelations that the algorithms on social media encourage us to ‘condemn more, understand less’.    Because

    Two planes, two trains and two buses took me from Toronto to Madrid, Malaga, Granada, Cordoba and home again.   While traveling and exploring, eating and enjoying art, culture, history and, on this trip, one tennis event, part of me always asks myself: Why do I travel? Why leave the comfort zone of home, the familiar routines, the place where you know who you are - and step out into the unknown?   It’s a question I ask myself each time and I’m not sure I have the exact answer.   Apart from the obvious expense, travel can evoke some anxiety as you navigate foreign places and modes of transportation, getting from one place to another (especially solo) in a country where you know no one and don’t speak the language other than a few basic phrases.    I do have part of the answer to my self-imposed question: I believe for me travel is about enriching my life experience, expanding my world and satisfying my curiosity. And in the process, absorbing different cultures, tast